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Athletes who win a gold, silver, or bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics receive a medal, a poster, and a stuffed toy of the Olympics mascot — but no money.

Even though the International Olympic Committee doesn’t offer a financial prize for a win, some countries still offer medalists cash bonuses. On Tuesday, based on data from the National Olympic Committees, CNBC published a list of the countries that reward winning athletes and how much they receive for each medal.

Related: ‘The Olympics Are a Business’: Mark Cuban Says NBA Players Should Not Be Permitted to Play in the 2024 Summer Games

Hong Kong and Singapore are the most generous, rewarding gold medalists with over half a million dollars.

^{Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images}

The U.S. finished tenth on the list, with prizes ranging from $15,000 to $38,000.

Becoming an Olympic athlete takes a six-figure investment with no guaranteed return, salary, or federal support to cover expenses. Rick Hawn, who competed in the 2004 Olympics in judo, said his family felt the financial strain of his Olympic career.

“My parents nearly went bankrupt,” Hawn told The Huffington Post. “They put whatever they could into me and I’m the oldest of six kids.”

The Paris Olympics costs up to $21,700 in fees and membership dues, but the annual income of one in four U.S. Olympians is less than $15,000. Team USA does award nearly $2.5 million in private grants every year.

Related: Famed Broadcaster Al Michaels’ Voice Will Be AI-Generated for Summer Olympics Coverage

Here are the top five countries with the highest Olympic payouts.

Hong Kong

Gold: $768,000

Silver: $384,000

Bronze: $192,000

Singapore

Gold: $745,000

Silver: $373,000

Bronze: $186,000

Indonesia

Gold: $300,000

Silver: $150,000

Bronze: $60,000

Israel

Gold: $271,000

Silver: $216,000

Bronze: $135,000

Republic of Kazakhstan

Gold: $250,000

Silver: $150,000

Bronze: $75,000

Here’s how the U.S. pays its medalists

Gold: $38,000

Silver: $23,000

Bronze: $15,000

For the full chart, click here.

For years, most of us have believed that the key to a secure life is to land a steady job with a reputable company. Having a regular paycheck, employment benefits and a clear career path are considered the ideal safety net. This is the message society consistently instills in us, which is why we strive to earn that college degree.

However, the world is changing and the security of working a traditional job seems to be diminishing. For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread job cuts across industries, with 360 tech companies laying off over 100,000 employees, as tracked by Layoffs.fyi.

Meanwhile, the availability of digital tools, online marketplaces and a vast support network that previous generations didn’t have access to make it easier for young entrepreneurs to create something for themselves. In fact, 50% of Gen Zers want to start their own businesses, according to Samsung.

These circumstances are leading more and more people to look for alternative means to earn through entrepreneurship and self-employment. The Census Bureau reported a record-high number of 5.5 million new business applications filed in 2023 while the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics shared a list of fast-growing careers that have high rates of self-employment.

Let’s explore some real-life examples of young business owners, parent entrepreneurs and side hustlers on Fud, who took the leap for self-security.

Related: 8 Reasons Why We Need Entrepreneurs Now More Than Ever

The illusion of job security

Employment is often seen as secure, but the reality is quite different. Companies frequently downsize or restructure due to various internal and external reasons, which can lead to unexpected layoffs.

Even major companies such as Google and Microsoft have made substantial job cuts this year, with some experts saying layoffs across industries are likely to continue amid economic downturns. It is alarming to see countless workers become jobless overnight, regardless of tenure.

Betting on yourself is your best bet

Given the uncertainties in conventional employment, entrepreneurship becomes your best bet for success and fulfillment. Working for yourself means you have full control of the operations and direction of your business. You get to set your own goals and schedule, make your own decisions and align the business with your values and passions.

When one of our experts and mentors on Fud, Megn, was diagnosed with a nervous system disorder, it ended her 15-year corporate journey. She then took matters into her own hands and started a business selling homemade soap bars. Her persistence and genuine interactions with the customers helped her expand the brand which now includes two owned retail stores and an Etsy shop.

Another advantage of entrepreneurship and self-employment is the ability to create multiple income streams. Instead of relying on a single paycheck from one employer, you can earn money from different clients, products or services.

Take for example, Keighly, who has left the corporate world to become a digital entrepreneur. She makes money from selling digital products, creating online courses and running multiple TikTok Shops.

The role of technology in starting your business

Starting a business used to require significant capital and resources, but that’s no longer the case. The barriers to entry are much lower, thanks to affordable technology and accessible information.

For instance, ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon and Etsy allow you to set up an online store in no time. You can market your business and connect with customers globally at little to no cost through social media.

Meanwhile, tools and apps are now made more accessible and affordable for project management, accounting and customer relationship management, making your business both time- and cost-efficient.

Related: The Best Strategy to Stand Out in Today’s Competitive Market May Not Be What You Think

The rise of remote work

The recent shift towards remote work has further leveled the playing field for entrepreneurs. With the right tools and resources, you can run a business from anywhere, collaborating with team members and clients across the globe. This setup reduces overhead costs associated with maintaining a physical office, making it easier to bootstrap your business and keep expenses low.

There are also online communities, networking groups, mentorship programs and startup incubators that can help and inspire business owners like you. They offer advice, share tools and provide a sense of community, making the entrepreneurial journey less lonely.

Making your money work for you

Starting a business isn’t just about making money. It’s also about investing in yourself. Whether you’re learning new skills, building your personal brand or expanding your network, every investment you make in yourself can pay off in the long run.

As your income isn’t limited to a salary or hourly rate, your earnings can scale up based on the success of your business. A lot of entrepreneurs I have interviewed earn significantly more than they would in their previous jobs and with high prospects as their business grows.

Just like mompreneur Prenise who took a comprehensive digital marketing course and is now building her own brand while caring for eight kids at home. Meanwhile, Raine has been documenting and sharing her journey on TikTok, fostering a supportive community online.

These discussions and real-life success stories prove that entrepreneurship is no longer just a dream. Although it comes with financial risks, the ability to forge your own path and potential rewards often outweigh them.

In business, everyone has an opinion. It can be easy for founders to get swayed by the latest trends, customer chatter, or investor pressure. However, for Christian Toetzke, founder and CEO of the global fitness racing craze HYROX, staying true to his original vision has been key to the company’s explosive growth.

“You have to be very convinced about your product and the DNA of a product. And you have to stick to the game plan,” he says.

Toetzke appears this week on an episode of One Day with Jon Bier to talk about the power of persistence, the importance of retaining company equity, and other lessons he’s learned since launching his brand in 2017.

Staying the course

By any metrics, HYROX is a success. Competitors run 1 km during the races, followed by one functional workout station, repeated eight times. In 2024, 260,000 people are expected to participate in 60 global events in 65 countries. Sponsors include Red Bull, Puma and Centr.

Still, Toetzke says he’s frequently asked to tinker with the formula.

“In the last five years, I don’t know how many people told me what we have to do.”

The number one request he gets is to change the workouts, which are always the same and include the farmer’s carry, rowing, SkiErg, wall balls, burpee broad jumps, sandbag lunges, and sled push and pull. But Toetzke says he’s studied the most successful sports in the world—marathons, triathlons, golf, tennis, Olympic sports—and notes they never change the fundamental rules of the competition.

Sports are “built around principles and rules and history and heritage,” he says.

Moreover, constantly changing the competition makes it impossible to compare the results of past competitors.

“In traditional sports, you have world records, and that’s one of the strongest marking tools in the world of sports,” he says. “If someone breaks a world record in a hundred-meter run, he’s immediately a global superstar.”

Related: How One Company Transformed a Medical Device into a Mass Market Phenomenon

Being reliable

By maintaining consistency, Toetzke has built a strong brand identity for HYROX. He wants to make it the “marathon of fitness” — a gold standard event that remains consistent across locations.

He admits they still have work to do on this front. As HYROX expands globally, he personally attends events worldwide to ensure they meet brand standards. “I see one million things they did differently in Melbourne and Mexico City. And that’s what we have to change.”

He wants HYROX to be a consistent, reliable experience for participants worldwide.

“To control the brand that is exploding globally, everyone has to follow the same game plan. Everyone has to follow the brand DNA. That’s a difficult task and not easy to do because with more and more people involved, everyone has own ideas how to do it.”

Related: 40 Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Staying Focused

Innovating with constraints

This is not to say that HYROX isn’t in favor of innovation. Toetzke says that HYROX continually tries to evolve and improve without changing the fundamentals of the sport.

He uses the iPhone as an example. Since its inception, there have been 42 different models with different features, but the basic look has remained the same.

In that regard, Hyrox has made significant innovations in its technology, as well as practical innovations with its equipment. Recently, they introduced sensors so that counting during the wall ball competition is done digitally, taking the onus off the judges. Through their partnership with Centr, the Official Equipment Partner of HYROX, the competition kettlebells are now designed with a unique ‘octo’ shape to allow for better weight distribution and handling during the farmer’s carry.

Taking financial risk

In an era where many startups rush to secure venture capital, often at the cost of significant ownership dilution, Toetzke calls for a more measured approach.

“My biggest advice is if you really believe in your product, try to keep as many shares as possible as long as you can,” he says. “Don’t take the quick money; take the risk.”

He warns against being the “guy who drives the whole business, who’s running all the operations, while the investors are making all the money but do nothing for the business.”

Related: How to Fund Your Business With Venture Capital

Fostering community

Another factor in HYROX’s success has been its ability to build a strong, engaged community around the brand. Toetzke says that 60 to 80 percent of the HYROX community view fitness as integral to their social life.

“You’re not just going to a gym. It’s your group of people. It’s your community, and that is now happening in every gym around the world.”

Toetzke envisions gyms becoming modern-day clubhouses, similar to golf clubs, where members form strong social bonds.

You go together to a HYROX event where you compete together, and you represent your gym,” he says. “Suddenly it’s emotional, suddenly it’s become a community.”

Founders often dream of being sold in Costco — but last year, when Costco offered to carry my beverage brand, O2 Hydration, I said no.

It was a gut-wrenching decision. I love Costco and would love to be carried in Costco, but also I knew a terrible truth: My brand just wasn’t ready yet. And if you go big before you’re ready, retail can kill you.

If you have a product that you want to sell on shelves, here are three things you absolutely need in place before saying yes to a retailer.

1. Understand Your Market and Prove Demand

Before scaling as a CPG founder, you need a deep understanding of your market and must prove demand for your product.

For my brand O2, we started our retail efforts in a single region with a single retailer, Whole Foods. We expanded to 10 Whole Foods within a year, and then we expanded to a full region. This approach allowed us to understand what worked, and then double down on that.

For example, we found that product samples drew customers in, and they were hooked once they heard our story. That’s awesome insight, but it means we had to scale accordingly. By running a slow ground game, we built a loyal customer base and secured more shelf space — and we did it store by store, and region by region.

2. Secure the Necessary Resources to Replicate

O2 was flying off shelves at Whole Foods, so we thought we were ready for prime time and agreed to launch nationally with Kroger, Publix, and Sprouts the following year.

That’s when we learned our first hard lesson about retail.

When we expanded across the country, the lack of geographic concentration diluted our efforts. We initially had success by focusing on the Midwest, where our team could actively support and promote our products. But when we went national, we couldn’t hire and train people fast enough to replicate what we were doing on a national level, and we were promptly discontinued.

Pro tip: Having a concentrated geographic focus allows you to manage and support your retail partners more effectively. It also helps in building brand recognition and customer loyalty in specific regions before expanding further. Without the right resources, you can’t support the increased demand and logistics that come with larger retail placements. This can lead to out-of-stocks, poor customer experience, and ultimately, being dropped by retailers.

3. Have the Conviction to Say “Not Yet”

When a retailer offers to carry your brand, it can feel like winning the lottery — and founders are often afraid to say no. They worry that it means closing a door.

That’s not the case. It’s perfectly appropriate to say, “Not yet.”

Retailers want brands that are set up for success, and they’re relying upon the brands to know if they’re ready. Brands must ensure that they have the necessary resources in place, in the right regions, before agreeing to retail expansion — and they also need to know what tools can get your product off the shelf.

For example: How often do you promote your product, and at what price? What off-shelf merchandising do you need to be successful, and how will you obtain it?

Retailers will not do this for you. You’re Odysseus and they’re the sirens. They see something working, and they want to push it out as fast and as wide as possible, and they’ll dangle a seductive six-to-seven figure PO in front of you to get what they want. They assume you know what’s working, have figured out how to scale it, and have secured the resources needed to do so. So if you say yes, you better know all of that!

If you don’t, then say “not yet.” The retailer will respect you for it. You just saved everyone a lot of heartache.

Retail expansion can be incredibly seductive, but it’s essential to ensure that you’re genuinely ready before taking the leap. By understanding your market, securing necessary resources, and building geographic concentration, you can set your brand up for sustainable success. Remember, saying no when you’re not ready can save your business and turn future opportunities into even bigger wins when you are.

Now you understand why I turned down Costco. I know my market well; my product sells great in many regions, and in specialty retailers nationwide. I’m building toward that national, mass-market ground game — and when I finally say yes to Costco, it’ll be because I’m confident I can make it a win for us both.

Staying ahead of the curve by managing expenses effectively is key to long-term success. The Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The 2024 Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle offers a unique opportunity to gain essential coding skills and powerful development tools for just $49.99 (reg. $1,999).

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The courses are designed to provide practical, hands-on experience, ensuring you can apply what you learn directly to your business projects.

You’ll get access to all 15 courses for life to dig into whenever you have time, whether it’s downtime at the office or home in your PJs. Topics cover learning to code with Python 3, beginner’s C++, ChatGPT, Google Assistant automation, JavaScript, Salesforce, Ruby on Rails, and even coding for games and kids.

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Uncover the truth about AI in marketing and why it’s a ticking time bomb for unprepared businesses! As AI revolutionizes the marketing landscape, understanding its long-term impact is crucial.

In this video, I dive deep into the reality of AI marketing, exposing the myths and revealing strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Learn why AI might play in your favor for the next 3 years, but could spell trouble if you’re not prepared for what’s coming. Discover how to leverage AI tools effectively while developing a future-sighted approach that will keep you competitive in an AI-driven world.

Download the free ‘AI Success Kit‘ (limited time only). And you’ll also get a free chapter from Ben’s brand new book, ‘The Wolf is at The Door – How to Survive and Thrive in an AI-Driven World.’

Money can often be the barrier between being stuck where you are or breaking through to the next level. This includes having or not having a budget, using it properly, hidden revenue or even misaligned goals — all of which influence your growth trajectory. These four common secrets have helped my company elevate our clients to the next level.

1. Financial transparency for ROI

The first blindspot we often notice with new clients is not having a clear reporting connection between your tools, like ads and a CRM like HubSpot, to see which channels drive the most significant return on investment (ROI). Do you know your best-performing channels? Or your best-performing piece of sales copy? What is the most opened document that leads to a closed deal?

And we’re not just talking about marketing and sales; this applies to many connected platforms — for example, the closed-loop revenue or your ERP systems. When things are not connected, they are disjointed and siloed. You end up flying blind. Without connecting your marketing tools with your revenue tools, and with that being CRMs, finance platforms, or ERPs, to name a few, there is a disconnect, and the arms and legs end up moving in different directions.

Here’s a simple example we see all the time: If you knew that one channel drove more deals by a 75% faster conversion rate, wouldn’t you invest more time and energy in that channel than one that only had a conversion rate of 10%? Many people don’t want to share the revenue numbers within the company, but all of that information informs the other departments; without sharing these revenue numbers, your money secret is keeping it in hidden silos.

Related: I Hit $100 Million in Annual Revenue by Being More Transparent — Here Are the 3 Strategies That Helped Me Succeed

2. Strategic investment for avoiding blind spots

Another financial blindspot is not investing in marketing. We have had prospects come in with no budget and no internal marketing team, but we want to grow by 150% and spend a total of $1,000. I wish achieving growth like this was possible, but unfortunately, it’s not. The old adage that you get what you pay for, or it takes money to make money, speaks the truth. Your investment goals should match your growth goals. The amount of money invested should be measured not just by short-term, quick wins but also by looking at long-term investment to growth.

You would never measure an HR department strictly on the number of hires. However, looking at the whole picture of longevity amongst many other important KPIs, You would not use an HR department for a few months. It is something that is constant and needs care and attention. Marketing is no different — if you strictly only measure marketing by the number of leads, you are missing out on the full picture. Marketing helps push leads through nurture campaigns, creates automation, leads scoring, builds new campaigns and tests, supports sales enablement activities and many other components. A buying cycle is rarely a straight line to click and buy unless we’re discussing Amazon.

That said, everyone has budgets, margins and bumper lanes they need to stay in. I am by no means saying throw your budget to the wind, but your goal should match your budget. If you have modest growth goals, be realistic about the budget needed to get there. Set incremental micro goals but stay the course for long-term growth.

Related: You Won’t Have a Strong Budget Until You Follow These 5 Tips

3. Data-driven decisions to save money

Another money secret that costs companies is spending without the data to back it. We had a company inquire about a new website, a full blow-up, new navigation, new content, new page layouts, migration onto a new CMS, a new theme and the works. They said they had a $75,000 budget for the whole project. In theory, it sounds great, right? Willing to invest? Check. Has a budget? Check. Know what they want the end result to be? Check. But when we asked them the next question, they looked at us like we were crazy, “Do you have data that backs the changes you are looking to make?” Are you running a tool like Hotjar to see real user data behind how these proposed changes will impact your existing inquiries and the only source the sales team was currently using for leads?

The answer was no. When the heat map was overlaid, do you know what happened? Well, they were looking to build that new navigation out and replace the old one — nearly 90% of the traffic was going to two pages of their site directly from the navigation, both of which they had originally wanted to remove. In this case, it wasn’t just about having the money but also about making sure the decisions you make with the budget are informed by real data: user data, sales data, marketing data and more. The more informed you can be by closing the loop on your data, the better your end result will be.

Related: Want to Be Better at Decision Making? Here are 5 Steps to Better Data-Driven Business Decisions

4. Modern marketing channels to drive growth

What is likely costing you the most is using old-school channels without the ability to measure. Companies have spent the last decade on traditional marketing channels and are switching to digital. The company’s historical growth has relied on things like trade shows, print, postcards and online magazines. We ask what the ROI you have seen by each channel is, and rarely can they share a specific revenue number and say it is for brand awareness. Some of the budgets can be over 50 to 100 thousand dollars spent on these traditional methods, but there is no ROI attached, yet they continue them.

When the pandemic happened, we saw a massive influx in businesses shifting from once only boots on the ground to digital. The lockdown changed everything; there were no more trade shows, no more door knocking and no one picking up their mail or faxes daily. It made traditional selling channels challenging and obsolete and forced a new level of openness to try new ways to get the job done. In the example of running online magazine ads there are lots of ways to capture them, we can use UTM tracking, referral analysis or create a custom landing page for the offer and capture the leads directly. Without running them to a landing page or form, you rely only on the online publication for leads and analytics. We’ve had people show a list of just names, no emails to follow up with, or only show a random number of visitors to the page, not a single name. It’s important to know what they will provide for reporting and tracking when you publish or use traditional channels. The rule of thumb is to use connections and tools that leverage old-school methods into technology and not blindly spend on channels that cannot be measured.

Stop wasting time, energy and revenue on these blind spots. They have easy solutions, so you can avoid them and focus on growing your business!

A decade ago, Nvidia was a major graphics card maker, vying with competitors like AMD and Intel for dominance. Now it’s an AI giant with 70% to 95% of the market share for AI chips, and the brains of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s also the best-performing stock with the highest return in the past 25 years.

Why did Nvidia invest in AI chips over 10 years ago, ahead of the competition? CEO Jensen Huang and board member Mark Stevens, Nvidia’s two largest individual shareholders, talked to Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha to explain what Botha called “one of the most remarkable business pivots in history.”

Nvidia’s original product was 3D graphics cards for PC games, but company leaders noticed by the mid-2000s that the PC market was hitting a growth limit.

Related: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Turned Down a Merger Offer in the Company’s Early Days, According to Insiders. Here’s Why.

“We felt we were always gonna be boxed into the PC gaming market and always knocking heads with Intel if we didn’t develop a brand new market that nobody else was in,” Stevens explained.

^{Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia. Photographer: Lionel Ng/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

That need for a new market intersected with a product Nvidia already had on hand: its graphics processor unit, or GPU, which could be used to power tasks outside of gaming. Researchers at universities across the world began exploring the graphics cards, eventually building advanced computers with them.

Related: Is It Too Late to Buy Nvidia? Former Morgan Stanley Strategist Says ‘Buy High, Sell Higher.’

Huang recalled meeting a quantum chemist in Taiwan who showed him a closet with a “giant array” of Nvidia’s GPUs on its shelves; house fans were rotating to keep the system cool.

“He said, ‘I built my own personal supercomputer.’ And he said to me that because of our work… he’s able to do his work in his lifetime,” Huang said.

Other researchers, like Meta AI chief Yann LeCun in New York, began reaching out to Nvidia about the computing power of its chips. Nvidia began considering the AI market when AI had yet to enter the mainstream and was a “zero billion dollar market” or a market that had yet to materialize.

“There was no guarantee that AI would ever really emerge because, keep in mind, AI had had many stops and starts over the last 40 years,” Stevens said. “I mean, AI has been around as a computer science concept for decades. But it had never really taken off as a huge market opportunity.”

Related: Nvidia Is ‘Slowly Becoming the IBM of the AI Era,’ According to the Leader of a $2 Billion AI Startup

Huang and other company leaders still believed in AI and decided to invest billions in the tech in the 2010s.

“This was a giant pivot for our company,” Huang said. “The company’s focus was steered away from its core business.”

Huang highlighted the extra cost, talent, and skills Nvidia had to account for with the pivot, as it affected the entire company. It took 10 to 15 years of effort, but that business decision led to Nvidia powering the AI revolution with an early ChatGPT partnership.

“Every CEO’s job is supposed to look around corners,” Huang said. “You want to be the person who believes the company can achieve more than the company believes it can.”

Related: How to Be a Billionaire By 25, According to a College Dropout Turned CEO Worth $1.6 Billion

According to the U.S. Small Business Association, 99.9% of all U.S. firms are classified as small businesses. Of the more than 33 million small businesses, 27.1 million are solo ventures without staff. By 2027, an estimated 87.5 million freelancers will comprise 50.9% of the entire U.S. workforce. Meanwhile, Bank of America disclosed a 3.8% growth in customers receiving direct deposits from gig platforms in March 2024, exceeding the previous peak in 2022.

These figures indicate that more and more people are leaving traditional employment to pursue other income-generating means so they can live on their own terms with greater freedom. These are ordinary individuals making money out of their skills and passion in their own way. I call them the everyday entrepreneurs.

For those just starting out, you may wonder, “How do you compete in a market saturated with products and solutions to every imaginable problem? And how can you thrive and survive in such a highly competitive environment?”

My approach is to focus on a super niche and develop the required expertise to deeply understand and fulfill their specific needs. I built Fud, a social hustling community and app, to specifically help first-time hustlers and aspiring entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. Currently, around 80% of Fud users are newbies.

The problem is many successful entrepreneurs today highlight their achievements on social media without truthfully sharing their struggles to reach that level of success. This trend turns their content into mere entertainment, and without knowing their full story, can discourage, mislead or overwhelm beginners.

That’s why at Fud, we promote transparency and honesty. We recognize the challenges and hard work of everyday entrepreneurs in starting and managing a business. At the same time, we believe that with the proper mindset, strong support system and the right tools, reaching your goals is achievable.

Related: 3 Ways to Stand Out from Competitors

Less is more profitable

The key in standing out is to dedicate your efforts to a super niche while intentionally avoiding other niches. This may seem counterintuitive. You may think, “Isn’t it more profitable to attract every potential customer out there? Wouldn’t you catch more fish by casting a wider net?”

Well, not everyone will be interested in what you offer, and that’s perfectly fine. Your focus is to find the right market whose needs align with your brand or who share your values. By targeting this smaller segment, you can provide more personalized services, create a stronger emotional connection and better meet their expectations, driving their most profitable behaviors.

A study published in Harvard Business Review revealed that customers who are fully connected with a brand are 52% more valuable than those who are just highly satisfied. Hence, building relationships, gaining the trust of a small community and aligning with their motivations result in more engaged and more profitable customers than serving a general audience.

Start by choosing a small, specific segment of the market that really sparks your interest. It should be something you’re genuinely passionate about because that passion will keep you going, especially when things get tough.

For me, it’s celebrating everyday entrepreneurship. I have always been intrigued and inspired by people who come up with interesting and uncommon ways to make money and succeed at it. It doesn’t have to be a seven-figure business or a worldwide phenomenon. Mastering your craft and excelling at any hustle is enough to be recognized and be an inspiration to others.

Related: How to Stand Out With Confidence and Achieve Your Potential

Invest in yourself

To master your chosen niche, you need to learn the skills that matter, use tools that work and maximize your resources. Don’t worry if you’re not yet an expert or have limited funds. Your willingness to learn and grow will guide you on the right path.

Fortunately, the vast range of online content about various topics and in different forms make learning more accessible and affordable to the average person. You can now attend live workshops, enroll in online courses and join virtual communities to master new skills and monetize them right away. Having said that, you should also be capable of distinguishing credible information from misleading content to avoid scams.

Be a painkiller

Immerse yourself in your super niche to understand what their pain is and find a solution to it. I do this by engaging with the Fud community, personally interviewing young business owners, side hustlers and parent entrepreneurs.

No journey is exactly the same, but by listening to their experiences, I notice common patterns. They share similar problems, questions and concerns. Most of them would have wanted to have a mentor when they were starting out to show them the ropes, motivate and hold them accountable, which would have saved them precious time and resources.

With Fud, users gain access to no-frills step-by-step guides, tips and resources from mentors, experts and fellow hustlers within the community. It’s this exchange of knowledge and insights that fosters growth, support and collaboration within the group.

Related: 4 Simple Tips for Standing Out in the Crowded Startup World

Share your journey

As a beginner, you can choose to document your journey and share it with your audience in real-time. Posting your experience on social media and letting others know your struggles and how you overcame them can connect you more deeply with your super niche and inspire them to start their own journey.

It doesn’t matter if you’re into content creation, digital marketing, gig work, freelancing or starting your own business. Whatever you are going through, there is an audience who can relate to it and want to learn from you. Just make sure you are creating relevant and genuine content.

When you focus all your energy and resources on mastering your craft and understanding your super niche market, you eventually become the best at it. You become better at identifying and solving problems, anticipating potential challenges and communicating with your customers effectively. Hence, you offer distinct value and personalized service to your audience, becoming your sustainable competitive advantage.

What if you invested in Nvidia 30 years ago, before it went public, and held on?

Venture capitalist Mark Stevens is currently one of Nvidia’s top individual shareholders, second only to CEO Jensen Huang. He invested in the AI chipmaker in 1993 as a new partner at Sequoia Capital. Stevens has been on Nvidia’s board for most of the company’s history, serving from 1993 to 2006, and then again from 2008 to the present. Nvidia went public in 1999.

Related: Is It Too Late to Buy Nvidia? Former Morgan Stanley Strategist Says ‘Buy High, Sell Higher.’

“There’s at least three times I can think of where we almost lost the company,” Stevens told Bloomberg. “Jensen has his famous saying of, ‘We’re 30 days away from going out of business,’ which is almost laughable today, but in the ’90s it was the reality.”

No one anticipated Nvidia going from a $8 million or $9 million Series A to a $3 trillion market cap today, Stevens said.

According to a Friday Bloomberg report, the over four million Nvidia shares Stevens owns are now worth about $4.7 billion and comprise over half of his $8.8 billion fortune. The rest of his net worth comes from his 6% ownership stake in the Golden State Warriors and other investments made throughout his venture capital career.

Related: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Turned Down a Merger Offer in the Company’s Early Days, According to Insiders. Here’s Why.

Though the AI boom has propelled Nvidia stock to new heights, Stevens says that it wasn’t easy to hold on in the early days. The chip market was crowded with competitors, and it was expensive to keep the best Silicon Valley talent.

^{Mark Stevens looking through a 360-degree display. Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images}

Nvidia currently leads the AI chip market, with tech leaders like Microsoft and Google believed to be among its biggest customers. Those clients could one day be Nvidia’s competitors, joining other chipmakers like Intel and AMD.

Huang said in June that Nvidia’s strategy in response to rising competition was to make AI chips with the “lowest total cost of ownership.” Tens of thousands of Nvidia’s chips are the brains of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Huang has the largest individual stake in the company, with 3.8% or over 934 million shares. He cashed in on $169 million worth of shares in June. Other Nvidia executives and directors have sold shares worth more than $700 million since the start of the year.

Nvidia has seen over 3,000% stock growth in the past five years, which has made early investors wealthy. Some long-term employees are reportedly in “semi-retirement” based on stock grants alone.

Related: Elon Musk Praises Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Leadership Style: ‘Absolutely the Right Attitude’